The Muslim Brotherhood's moderate father figure?

Youssef al Qaradawi is viewed by some experts as a moderate, a reputation he has taken great pains to cultivate among the useful idiots of the West.  No doubt there are many members of the Obama administration who greatly admire this Islamic scholar who has come to be known as the ‘father figure’ of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.  Each Sunday for the past fifteen years Al-Jazeera television has broadcast Qaradawi’s “Shariah and Life” to an audience of some 60 million Muslims who tune in for the Imam’s message of hope and change.

According to Spiegel Online:

Qaradawi advocates establishing a “United Muslim Nations” as a contemporary form of the caliphate and the only alternative to the hegemony of the West.  He hates Israel and would love to take up arms himself.  In one of his sermons, he asked God  “to kill the Jewish Zionists, every last one of them.”

 

In January 2009, he said: “Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption.  The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler.

 

Will this man encourage his brothers in Cairo to uphold the peace treaty with Israel, should the Muslim Brotherhood become part of a government now that Mubarak has resigned?

 

The 84-year-old is the president of the International Association of Muslim Scholars and the European Council for Fatwa and Research.  He has written more than 120 books and penned countless doctrines, which he distributes internationally via his website IslamOnline.net.

 

[…]

 

The imam has also developed a reputation for himself as a moderate.  Many see him as a symbol of an enlightened Islam.  When speaking to the Western media, in particular, Qaradawi likes to point to Muslims’ tolerance of non-Muslims and condemns the attacks of al-Qaida.

Maybe it’s just me, but when I hear any religious leader ask God to kill an entire race of human beings, one of the last words that come to mind is “moderate.”  Speaking to his TV audience of the Muslim faithful, Qaradawi wields a powerful and frightening influence on 60 million people each week.  Radical religious leaders of any stripe present a danger to society through their spiritual influence over their flock, for some reason Jeremiah Wright comes to mind.

February 16, 2011

paboehmke@yahoo.com